Scenario-based design

By Adam Hardy

Recently we have been using a sophisticated participatory design technique in a number of our user-centered design projects, known as scenario-based design. A more familiar approach in academia and software development, it’s still quite new for creating web user experiences. It’s proving to be an invaluable tool for exploring user activities and potential solutions to an audience’s diverse requirements.

A scenario tells a story. It has a plot with characters that do things and have things happen to them. It relays rich detail about the characters’ goals, attitudes, behaviours and aspirations. Naturally the story features the use of the system whose user experience we are designing. But it also crucially involves the wider context of this use, extending into areas of the characters’ lives that don’t explicitly involve the system. In this way, scenarios capture a broader range of factors influencing a system’s use.

We depict scenarios visually using a storyboard or comic strip. We create scenarios that are fictional, but based on real-world situations discovered through research conducted with our target audiences. We conduct one-to-one interviews supplemented with further primary research, such as surveys and diary studies. The data is then analysed for common themes from which scenarios are formed.

These scenarios are modified to include ideas for potential content, functionality and information architecture that best meet the needs of the characters while alleviating any issues they might encounter. We call these ‘augmented scenarios’. These design solutions draw upon suggestions gathered during the various streams of user research, as well as Foviance consultants’ own creativity and craft knowledge.

We take the augmented scenarios back to our original research participants for feedback. The visual storyboarding of the scenarios comes into its own at this stage as it enables the participants to rapidly understand the concepts being described. We want to check if audience members identify with the scenarios and the rough design solutions they incorporate. They are asked to identify the ‘break points’ of each scenario; the places in which they feel it doesn’t work and the reasons for this. Feedback is provided and alternatives are explored.

The scenarios contain very little detail about how a particular design concept should work or what it should look like at this stage. We use the scenario to work with the participants to start filling in this detail in the way that is most appropriate to them. Finally, the scenarios are amended to reflect the changes deemed necessary in light of the user feedback, and to include the more detailed descriptions of functionality, content and information architecture. Often scenarios spark other ideas and additional scenario suggestions from participants.

So what is the deliverable? The outputs are visual and engaging descriptions of the core user journeys the system should support, with rich detail around the unique requirements of the different segments of the target audience. They are prescriptive, in that they describe the content, functionality or information architecture needed to meet these requirements. These can then form the basis of further development of the solutions through prototyping or wireframes.

We have found the approach to have many benefits:

• Allows users to participate in the design process
• Communicates complex concepts quickly and easily to both users and stakeholders
• Generates creativity from participants, stakeholders and consultants due to the immersive nature of the communication style
• Takes the whole context of the interaction into account (is not simply concerned with on-screen interactions)
• The attractive visual deliverable engages stakeholders at all levels within the client organisation and engenders buy-in for the user experience project from the wider organisation as a whole
• Particularly suitable for intranets and other organisational systems thanks to buy-in and that ready access to captive, unpaid participants!